McGleish still hungry to play for Wealdstone

VETERAN striker Scott McGleish will draw on Gordon Bartlett’s wealth of managerial knowledge during his time at Wealdstone.

The much-travelled former Bristol Rovers, Leyton Orient and Wycombe Wanderers striker signed on the dotted line for the Stones at the end of last week.

He is hoping to provide the goals to get Wealdstone over the line in their promotion push this season, making a good start with a debut strike at Margate on Tuesday, and insists he still has plenty to offer on the pitch at the age of 39.

“It’s always nice to feel wanted and to know that people are still out there watching you,” McGleish said. “To be joining a team that’s challenging for the title and promotion is a nice feeling.

“It was a tough decision because I was enjoying my time at Enfield, I know the manager, and that was showing in my football.

“I’m still ambitious though and want to play for winning teams and go for promotion and the big draw was the fact that they are challenging this year and if we go up then it’ll be another step up for next year.

But McGleish, who netted 12 times in 13 games for Enfield before moving to Grosvenor Vale, has ambitions to make it in the dugout too.

Currently coaching League One Stevenage’s U14S side, McGleish will combine two roles while playing for the Stones and manage his own fitness and training programme.

And while he is not ready to hang up his boots just yet, the experienced frontman sees Bartlett’s decades of experience in non-league management as a real asset.

“I would like to get into management at some sort of standard and eventually coach in the Football League if possible, although the jobs there are few and far between,” added the striker. “At the moment, if a job comes up and it excites me then I will put myself forward for it. Hayes & Yeading was one of them and I applied for that.

“Gordon has asked me to use my expertise from being in the Football League to help out some of the players here and I can use his expertise from being a manager for so long.

“If a management job came up and I could secure it then I would have to think about [giving up playing] but at the moment that’s not the plan.

I’m enjoying playing football and I’ll keep going as long as that’s the case. I don’t feel my time is up yet.”